Iran, Lukoil Sign $6m Exploration Deal

Iran has signed a $6-million deal with Russian oil giant Lukoil to explore the country’s oil-rich southwestern province of Khouzestan.

Lukoil has already started looking for oil and gas reserves in Dasht-e Abadan and the northern parts of the Persian Gulf, said Hormoz Qalavand, the director for exploration affairs of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).

The Russian company has agreed to pay the costs of the two projects.

A consortium of Lukoil and Norway’s Statoil led to discovery of oil in the Azar and Changuleh fields in 2005. The two companies pulled out of the country in 2011 once US and EU tightened Iran sanctions over the country’s nuclear agenda.